Princeton task force learns about school funding systems

Princeton School District is making an effort to bridge a gap between itself and the community through its Community Engagement Task Force to better the district for current and future students.

The goal of the task force is to ultimately discuss the options for future development and funding for the district and come up with a recommendation to be presented to the Princeton School Board for consideration and approval.

A meeting of the task force on Tuesday, Sept. 24 was the second to take place, the first having occurred in the spring, and the members of the task force learned about where school funding comes from and the different ways schools can obtain additional funding.

The task force is composed of a wide variety of community members including parents, business owners and others from a wide range of backgrounds in the community.

Superintendent Ben Barton started the meeting by asking the question, “What is our vision for education?”

Barton went on to say that the community is the owner of the schools, and they deserve a say in what takes place with the school’s decision and its future which is why the district has created this task force.

Since the school’s buildings are assets of the people, the district felt it important to involve them in the decision-making process.

One of the first steps to that process is understanding how schools are funded.

According to Barton, schools have three main needs as they relate to their budgets: operating needs, financial needs and education needs.

He went on to explain that Princeton gets, on average, $3,000 less per student compared to other schools across Minnesota.

This gap in funding is due to a lack of voter approved operating referendum, which 80% of districts in the state currently have.

While Princeton has worked to live within its means, according to Barton, increased costs due to inflation have made it more and more difficult to do so, and the district would need a voter approved operating referendum in the future to maintain its current level of education.

Barton then shared some recent history about the district’s referendum efforts. The most recent referendum approved by voters for the district was in 2014 which resulted in the construction of Princeton Primary School. Another referendum was attempted in 2020, but voters did not approve it.

The district is now hoping to present another referendum option to voters in the near future, but the school board requested input from the community before making any final decisions, which is where the task force comes in.

Barton then invited the senior municipal advisor at the municipal advisory firm Ehlers Jodie Zesbaugh to explain how school funding works to the task force.

According to Zesbaugh, the primary source of funding for Princeton is state aid at 82%, followed by property taxes at 9% and federal aid at 3%, and the majority of a school’s revenue is determined by enrollment numbers.

Barton added onto Zesbaugh’s comment and stated that Princeton’s enrollment numbers have been steadily decreasing due to a declining birth rate in the area, which adds to the difficulties of the district’s funding challenges.

Zesbaugh then shared there is currently a $1,364 gap between current inflation rates and education funding, which is why so many districts across Minnesota currently have operating referendums.

Two of the more popular referendum options for districts are the operating referendums and a capital project levy, which many districts refer to as a technology levy as it can be used to cover technology costs for a district and free up general funds for other projects.

However, those types of referendums can create inequities between districts due to differences in each community’s voting base and whether a community is more rural or urban in nature.

“Someone’s zip code should not dictate their education,” Barton said.

Zesbaugh shared some different financing tools and options a district could pursue to obtain additional funding, including the two referendums listed above, along with building bonds, capital facilities bonds, long-term facilities maintenance funding, funding for health and safety-related projects and abatement bonds.

Of those funding options, the voter approved referendums are the least restrictive and the funds can be used by the district in a variety of ways.

Zesbaugh also explained the potential timeline for a referendum to be included in the 2025 November election to the task force, which would require a decision to be made by the Princeton School Board in late spring or early June of 2025 to be on the ballot. If approved by voters, the funds would be accessible in the 2026-27 school year.

Barton turned the meeting over to the task force itself to brainstorm ideas on what they believe the district’s biggest needs are and what avenues they could potentially pursue for those ideas.

There are two upcoming task force meetings in October in which the group will discuss goals and aspirations in the first meeting, and visions for what can be in schools in the second.

The task force plans to meet from October to April, at which point they will make their final recommendations to the school board.

To learn more about the Community Engagement Task Force, visit https://www.isd477.org/district/community-engagement.

Reach Chloe Smith at chloe.smith@apgecm.com